VAN2001042114 - 21 APRIL 2001 - VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA: Bjossa the killer whale pokes her head out of the water in the Vancouver Aquarium's medical holding pool awaiting darkness before she is hoisted aboard ground transport for her ride to the airport to be loaded on a Hercules aircraft and flown to San Diego and SeaWorld, April 21, 2001. hr/H. Ruckemann UPI |
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ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 24 (UPI) -- SeaWorld plans to put trainers back in the water with killer whales, the U.S. entertainment company said a year after one of its trainers was killed by a whale.
Trainers at SeaWorld's three U.S. marine parks will begin limited "water work" with killer whales in the next few months, with the interactions at first taking place in small medical pools equipped with false-bottom floors that can be lifted out of the water, the company told the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel.
The company, owned by private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP, will also spend tens of millions of dollars on safety upgrades at its killer-whale facilities in Orlando, San Diego and San Antonio, officials said.
The upgrades range from custom-designed, fast-rising pool floors in large show venues to underwater vehicles that can distract an out-of-control killer whale with pulsing lights and whale vocalizations, the officials told the newspaper.
SeaWorld has not decided when, or if, trainers will go back into the water with killer whales during public shows, the officials said.
Trainers have not been allowed in the water with the whales since veteran SeaWorld Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, was killed by a 12,000-pound Orca named Tilikum Feb. 24, 2010.
The whale grabbed her by her hair while she stood in shallow water and dragged her into a deep pool, killing her in front of a shocked audience.
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment said at the time trainers would not get into the water with killer whales until after officials reviewed the circumstances of Brancheau's death.
